In its latest quarterly dry bulk market outlook*, Maritime Strategies International points to the re-routeing of Russian exports to new destinations as a result of the EU ban on imports. At the same time imports to Europe are also travelling longer distances to reach the bloc from other sources.

With Russian exports subject to the European Union’s import ban, Russia has re-routed those flows to other destinations, in particular China, India and Turkey, a structural change to major coal trade that MSI believes will persist over its forecast horizon.

“The war in Ukraine is continuing to have disruptive effects on the dry bulk commodities markets and therefore dry bulk shipping, in this case the larger ship classes will be the ones to benefit,” says Plamen Natzkoff, Associate Director, Dry Bulk Commodities, MSI. “There are of course risks to this forecast but the shipping demand trend is likely to be only re-enforced by Europe’s increased reliance on coal imports which it must secure from longer-distance sources.”

Energy market disruption sees coal cargoes fire up Capesize demand | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide